Substance Use

Description

Substance use disorders occur when regular use of alcohol and/or drugs impacts daily functioning,
including health problems, disability, and inability to meet main responsibilities at home, work,
or school.1

Why It's Important

Leading causes of death are at least partially caused by the abuse of alcohol, tobacco, or other
drugs. Chronic liver disease, unintentional injuries, and suicide are associated with alcohol use;
chronic lower respiratory disease and influenza and pneumonia are associated with tobacco use; heart
disease, malignant neoplasms, and cerebrovascular disease are associated with both alcohol and
tobacco use; and unintentional injuries and suicide are associated with the use of other drugs.

What Is Known

According to the Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health (DSAMH) over 16,000 individuals
were served in substance use disorder treatment in 2014. More men than women received services. The
age group with the highest rate of admissions was ages 25-34 years. When looking at per capita rates
of people per 1,000 population, American Indian/Alaskan Native individuals had the highest rate of
substance use disorder treatment, with Black/African American individuals having the second highest
rate per capita. Most people admitted for substance abuse disorder treatment lived on their own and
were unemployed. Almost 75% had a high school education level or less than high school level. Over
50% had never been married.3

Deaths attributable to prescription opioid overdoses have more than tripled since
1999.4 The rate of opioid overdose
deaths has been rising for Americans regardless of age or race. Utah is particularly affected by
prescription opioids. Utah unintentional deaths attributable to prescription pain medication
increased over 500% during 1999-2007.5
Most Utahns who die a drug-related death suffer from chronic pain and take prescribed pain
medications.6

This epidemic of opioid poisonings is strongly related to widespread and rising prescription opioid
misuse and abuse. An estimated 12 million Americans over age 12 misused prescription opioids during
the year 2010.4 In a 2008 Behavioral
Risk Factor Surveillance Survey, 24.5% of Utahns reported using some type of prescribed opioid during
the previous year.7 Prescription
opioid therapy, chronic non-cancer pain, high dose prescription opioids, and multiple
prescriptions/pharmacies have been implicated as risk factors for overdose
death.4,5

Who Is at Risk

According to the Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health (DSAMH) over 16,000 individuals
were served in substance use disorder treatment in 2014. More men than women received services. The
age group with the highest rate of admissions was ages 25-34 years. When looking at per capita rates
of people per 1,000 population, American Indian/Alaskan Native individuals had the highest rate of
substance use disorder treatment, with Black/African American individuals having the second highest
rate per capita. Most people admitted for substance abuse disorder treatment lived on their own and
were unemployed. Almost 75% had a high school education level or less than high school level. Over
50% had never been married.8

How To Reduce Risk

There is a large body of evidence on effective strategies to prevent excessive alcohol use and
alcohol-related harm. In the past decade, this evidence base has been the subject of numerous
systematic expert reviews to assess the quality and consistency of the evidence for particular
strategies; and to make recommendations based on this evidence. These expert reviews have recently
been summarized by the NMDOH. The following list summarizes the evidence-based prevention strategies;
and to make recommendations based on this evidence. In Utah, DSAMH supports the Communities that Care
prevention coalition to provide prevention services.9

The DSAMH provides the following services:

Statewide, 13 local substance abuse authorities offer services to individuals and their
families

Services include education, prevention, early intervention, treatment and recovery support

Multiple prevention programs are available to individuals of all ages, families, schools,
and communities

Nationally, the most common reasons that people who need and seek treatment do not receive it are:
they have no health insurance and cannot afford the cost; they are not ready to stop using; they did
not know where to go for treatment; they had health coverage but did not cover treatment or did not
cover cost; or they had no transportation or it was inconvenient.10

How It's Tracked

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded the development of the
Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) methodology that applies attributable fractions to
underlying causes of death to arrive at the estimated number of deaths that were
alcohol-related.11

Adult prevalence data come from Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory
Services.

Youth prevalence data come from Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey (YRRS), U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services.

Utah DOH

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citation: "Retrieved Mon, 21 January 2019
from the Utah Department of Health, Indicator-Based
Information System for Public Health Web site: http://ibis.health.utah.gov"

Page Content Updated: Fri, 11 Jan 2019 15:18:26 MST

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Retrieved
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